The Ethiopian government has disputed a report issued by a rights group recently that it is mistreating thousands of Tigrayans deported from Saudi Arabia.
Foreign affairs ministry spokesman Dina Mufti described the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report as irresponsible and intended to undermine the government’s efforts to help the returnees.
“The report is not only unsubstantiated but an irresponsible move that aimed to discredit all the efforts that the Ethiopian government has been doing to relieve the pains of our citizens that have returned from Saudi Arabia,” Dina said.
“We have repatriated more than 40,000 Ethiopians from Saudi Arabia in just a couple of months regardless of which ethnic group they belong to.”
The HRW on Wednesday said hundreds of Tigrayans who had been deported from Saudi Arabia, where they had sought work, were arriving at Addis Ababa airport only to be detained in congested squalid conditions.
“On the other hand, the government of Ethiopia is aware of the ongoing plight of Ethiopians in various detention centres in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
“Cognisant of this fact, a committee that comprises high-level government officials, religious leaders, and various stakeholders is finalising preparations to head to Saudi Arabia to discuss measures in this regard.”
The rights group said in January 2021 that the Ethiopian government had announced it would cooperate in repatriating 40,000 of its nationals detained in Saudi Arabia, beginning with 1,000 a week.
The HRW said 40 percent of the returnees from Saudi Arabia between November 2020 and June 2021 were Tigrayan.
The group added that deportations increased significantly between late June and mid-July, with over 30,000 reportedly expelled.
“The surge in repatriations coincided with an increase in profiling, arbitrary detentions, and forcible disappearances of Tigrayans by Ethiopian authorities in Addis Ababa following the withdrawal of Ethiopian federal forces from the Tigray region and an expansion of the Tigray conflict,” said HRW.
In November 2020, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said three Ethiopian peacekeepers were withdrawn and deported to their country without due process.
This was after reports emerged that three Ethiopian soldiers from the Tigray ethnic group had been returned to their country ostensibly to curb their influence.
UNMISS officials described the deportation could have violated their human rights if it was based on the peacekeepers’ ethnic background.
